John 14:16-17
We see times throughout the Bible when God speaks to people a second time…you would think if God was speaking, you’d pay attention the first time…but Scripture reveals that’s not always the case.
So why does God speak a second time to people…we’ve all been there…we may not think we have…but we have…needing to hear from God a second time regarding something in our lives.
I don’t re-preach sermons…no need…I don’t think in my lifetime I can preach all the lessons and truths found in the Bible…but I do re-preach ideas that need to be emphasized because they are of paramount importance…it’s as if God is saying…one more time on this one.
So what does it mean if you’re one of those God comes to a second time and repeats the same thing to…it could mean:
1. God cares a lot…wanting to make sure you got it.
2. That He wasn’t speaking aimlessly the first time.
3. He wants you to take heed of what He said the first time and never forget it.
In chapter 14, Jesus has been comforting the disciples’ fears about His leaving…that despite His going away…He assures them…He would not leave them alone…so He shares with them something hidden from all eternity past…
16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you 18 I will not leave you…”
The importance of this verse and Jesus’ revelation of the coming of the Holy Spirit is the salient point in this whole discourse…Jesus is sharing with the disciples something that had never been revealed since creation…but even then He doesn’t reveal the depths of what is about to happen.
He begins revealing to them the Holy Spirit who will come to take His place when He goes to the Father…the Spirit carries on Jesus’ mission of revealing the Father.
The disciples were already familiar with Jesus as their comforter …counselor… helper…BUT…notice Jesus says that the Father, not wanting to leave them alone, will send another of the same kind to help them after He’s gone.
Jesus is saying what you have been experiencing is the comforter abiding WITH you… but…the Father is sending the Holy Spirit…another comforter…who will abide IN you…to always be with you to guide and instruct.
The Holy Spirit does from the INSIDE what Christ did from the OUTSIDE … teach…convict…remind…and guide…then He clarifies that this Helper is only available to those who believe [14:17].
Here in the upper room Jesus is laying the foundation of what will occur in just a few days…something that has never happened in the history of the world.
God is about to send Himself in the form of The Holy Spirit…who will convict the world of sin…to suppress evil in the world…to bring people to a knowledge of who Jesus is…to work in the lives of Christians by…leading…guiding… uniting …and reconciling them back into fellowship with God.
Jesus tells them that He is leaving them and going back to the Father in heaven – and because of His compassion for them…He will send them the Spirit of truth to permanently indwell and guide them.
In one sense we’re like the disciples…much of what Jesus said and did was not understood by them…it was not until years later when the Holy Spirit revealed to Paul the real importance of the Holy Spirit’s purpose in the lives of believers.
As Christians it’s imperative that we understand the Holy Spirit’s purpose…it is through Paul’s writings that we are able to understand how He works in the lives of Christians.
At the moment of conversion, you receive the Holy Spirit…you are baptized in the Holy Spirit…God does not give you something…He gives you Himself…the Holy Spirit is God…living in you… carrying out His purposes.
Baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs at salvation… it is at that point the Holy Spirit comes to permanently live inside of you …you have all of Him you are ever going to get.
You don’t have to do anything to be baptized in the Spirit except trust Jesus as your Savior…people have a desire to do something…AGAIN…you do nothing.
This is what is known as being sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise [Eph 1:13] …Ephesians is the only book in the Bible that makes any mention of this promise. Here’s what this means…all who believe in Christ are sealed by the Spirit of God…
it is our mark of adoption as God’s children.
The Holy Spirit’s seal cannot be broken…It is God’s GUARANTEE that all He has promised us will surely come to pass.
Different than being filled with the Spirit.
The filling of the Spirit is not getting more of the Spirit…at conversion you already have all you are ever going to get…it’s a matter of the Holy Spirit getting more control of you.
Every Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit…once and for all…BUT…the filling of the Spirit is a matter NOT of how much of the Spirit we have…but how much the Spirit has of us.
KEY–not all Christians are equally filled with the Spirit…all Christians are baptized in the Spirit…but not all Christians are equally filled with the Spirit.
When we lack the infilling…not the indwelling of the Spirit…when we fail to fully surrender ourselves to God…this is why we are unsuccessful in our Christian life …this is why we are not experiencing a closer walk with God…this is why situations continue to overwhelm us…we fail to allow the Spirit to control us.
As Christians it’s imperative that we know 1) we have all been baptized in the Spirit…He has sealed us…we belong to God…and 2) Scripture says ‘keep on being filled’ …we should every day seek a fresh infilling of God’s Spirit…there is one baptism of the Holy Spirit at conversion…but there are many fillings.
After the conclusion of the Lord’s Supper…and His explanation of the role of the Spirit…Jesus tells the disciples:
let us go from here’ [John 14:31]
they went out to the Mount of Olives [Mark 14:26]
39Jesus went out…and his disciples followed him. 41He withdrew…knelt down and prayed, [Luke 22]
TWO THINGS
FIRST…this prayer actually takes up the entire 17th chapter of John…this is not a ‘now I lay me down to sleep’ prayer…this prayer is the longest recorded prayer of Jesus in any of the Gospels…Jesus prays for three things:
He first prays for Himself…then He prays for His disciples…He then closes the prayer by praying for all believers throughout the ages…this intercessory prayer is commonly called Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer.
Jesus begins His High Priestly Prayer by revealing that His purpose in coming to earth was to glorify the Father by giving eternal life to those who believe in Him.
Although Jesus is God and was with the Father before the world began (John 17:5), He humbled Himself and came to earth as a man so people would know ‘the only true God’ (John 17:3).
Jesus continues His High Priestly Prayer by praying for His disciples…who knew that He was God, and believed that the Father sent Him (John 17:8).
Jesus prays that the Father would protect the disciples not from the world…I do not ask that you take them out of the world…because they are all going to die painful deaths…but He prays: that you keep them from the evil one. (John 17:15).
After praying for His disciples, Jesus prays for everyone who will ever believe in Him… His desire is that all of His followers would be in complete unity, just as He and the Father are in perfect unity (John 17:21).
One of the important aspects of Christianity is…unity…Paul prays,
May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God [Rom 5:5-7]
SECONDLY…In this prayer we see the human side of Jesus.
42Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done. [Luke 22:39-42].
The second time He would pray this prayer…a petition expressing a desire from His human side…asking if there might be a different way to achieve God’s purpose.
Nowhere in Scripture does it specifically say that Jesus was tempted anytime after they gathered in the Upper Room until He eventually died on the Cross.
I would like to suggest He was…a number of times…I think Satan had been waiting for this opportunity since Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness when He first entered into His ministry. Luke says:
When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left Him until an opportune time. [Luke 4:13]
The word ‘time’ in the Greek is καιρός, meaning a fixed and definite time.
What better time to test Jesus than just hours before His trial…when He’s the weakest and most vulnerable in His human spirit.
I believe Jesus was tempted throughout the entire upper room gathering…then at Gethsemane…during the trials…and clear up until He died on the Cross.
—In the Upper room Jesus knew that He was going to die…He was fully aware that Peter would deny Him [13:38] …that Judas would betray him [13:21] …that all the disciples would scatter…it appeared His ministry was over …think Jesus is at a low point in His ministry?
—Once in the Garden where He would be betrayed Jesus said His ‘soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death’ [Mark 13:34 / Matt. 26:38]
—At His arrest we see Jesus overcoming the strongest of human desires…the temptation of self-preservation.
What better time to convince Jesus that He didn’t have to do this?
There never was a time that Satan didn’t know who Jesus was…he’d been trying to get rid of Him for over thirty years…or at least have Him rethink this whole crucifixion thing…things had been going OK up until now…do you really need to go to this extreme? Do you really need to die?
One thing about Satan is…his temptations are subtle…they’re not over the top ridiculous…Satan used the same tactics in the wilderness and here in the garden that he’d been using since Adam and Eve…he doesn’t tempt us any differently than he did Adam and Eve…because human nature hasn’t changed…after 1000’s of years he’s a pretty good judge of human nature.
We see a couple important truths about Satan’s involvement in temptation.
Satan attacks when we are most vulnerable
Satan will take advantage of your weaknesses…He will work his lies into the crevices of your heart, where fears and doubts exist…he will tempt you to live out your natural human tendency to live for yourself.
Now…here’s where the separation between Jesus and us comes in…when Satan tempts us it’s usually because we have already given him something to work with …something he can use in his favor.
Our temptation begins in our sinful heart (James 1:13-16) …Jesus didn’t have a sinful heart…therefore He didn’t have sinful desires…nevertheless…the temptations were no less powerful in the fullness of His humanity.
Here’s the temptation…If God puts you in a place of difficulty for some purpose, don’t try to change it solely to satisfy your physical or personal needs.
Instead…try to discover what God is doing through the circumstance rather than shortcut the experience and lose the blessing by taking the easy way out.
Let me show you…Satan says… ‘if you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread’ …the word ‘if’ confuses everything…in this statement Satan is not questioning Jesus’ deity because He knew exactly who Jesus was…he was there when He was born…in this statement he’s actually acknowledging it.
He’s not saying… ‘if’ but ‘Since you are the Son of God, why starve yourself to death? …Come on man…just change some stones into bread.”
Satan’s temptation was to get Jesus to act in His self-will…what I want…taking advantage of Jesus’ human weakness of hunger to satisfy his own physical or personal need or desire.
It’s what I just told you…here’s the temptation…If God puts you in a place of difficulty for some purpose don’t try to change it solely to satisfy your physical or personal needs.
It may seem like such a small thing…on the surface turning stones into bread seems to be no big deal…after all Jesus was hungry…He hadn’t eaten in 40 days…what’s the harm in making something to eat? …He had the power to do it…He multiplied food for other people who were hungry… so why was this a temptation?
While Satan is not all-powerful, he is clever and skillful at manipulating situations and people—always to achieve his purpose of provoking us to sin.
Satan was tempting Jesus to alter God’s purpose…Scripture says, “Jesus was led by the Spirit” into the wilderness…God had a purpose for this period of time that required Jesus’ absolute trust and dependence on Him.
Satisfying His hunger wasn’t the temptation…the temptation was tempting Jesus to pursue the natural desire of satisfying Himself over trusting God to provide for His needs…to doubt the provision and purposes of God and to act outside of them.
Placing our desire for something…even if it’s good…above trusting God in obedience is wrong.
Satan’s temptation to Eve was she should please herself instead of the Lord…me first…it’s the same with us…instead of loving the Lord we love ourselves…HOW?
We love ourselves:
· by claiming the respect, honor, and privilege that we think we are due.
· by doing what we want to do.
· by seeking the praise of men instead of seeking glory for God.
· by giving in to the temptations of the devil, the flesh, and the world.
· by surrounding ourselves with only people who are easy to get along with.
Satan never gives up
Need to recognize that Satan will never stop tempting…in Jesus’ case…
And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
In other words, I’ll catch you later…I’m not going anywhere.
Satan’s attacks on Jesus did not end when Jesus successfully resisted him three years earlier in the wilderness…Satan just left Jesus alone for a while until another opportunity arose…the same is true for you and me.
Satan might leave us alone for a time, but he’s simply waiting—waiting for another moment when we are at our weakest and most vulnerable…
We have a real enemy whose aim is to kill, steal, and destroy [John 10:10] …he is relentless in his attacks on us…it is a war that is played out every day in heaven… as soon as we accepted Jesus as Savior Satan began his attacks and he will continue until we are out of this body. That is the importance of every day…keep on being filled with the Spirit.